True, if you are used to it. At the beginning is can be disorientating for someone new.
Elite Dangerous' Game Design is stuck behind a rock and a hard place
- Thread starter Zaptruder
- Start date
True, if you are used to it. At the beginning is can be disorientating for someone new.
Ah that explains it, I came to Frontier first when I was .... *calculates* damn, I was only 9 at the time when we got it on the Amiga. Between Frontier and the Wing Commander games I must have sunk thousands to tens of thousands of hours into it
I've heard so many good ideas, many on this thread
1. Allowing in-system jumps in return for wear & tear/repair bills - you have to use supercruise if you're not willing to pay the price
2. Introducing in-system jump beacons, where you have to go/arrive when jumping - risky because you fall out of your jump (and potentially have to start it) at jump beacons in real space, so you trade the SC tedium for real-space, actual combat risk. Key thing is that if you have intel telling you there's likely to be a camp, you can avoid it by using SC, avoiding the usual EVE-style ganking.
3. Introducing some slightly more Newtonian mechanics which make it possible to arrive much quicker if you exploit the gravity wells. Even allow advance plotting of launch trajectories, using slingshotting etc.
4. Allow us to do more stuff while travelling.
For this last point, I have a slew of ideas, many of which, I'm sure, are not new:
-- Plotting and planning the above trajectories - even for other systems where we have the system data. Hell, orbital SC trajectories could even become saleable commodities like trade data, which you could farm for profit.
-- Allow us to buy actual trade reports, with prices, from nearby systems - maybe even from other pilots we see on our radar. Allow us to review these on our HUD while still piloting
-- Make the available modules for outfitting available for review similarly
-- Have a smaller, simpler (2D graph) in-HUD system/galaxy map allowing more interactive route planning while flying
-- Make stations broadcast mission adverts across the system when you get within radio range. Have them pop up on the HUD, and allow them to be selected to immediately target the relevant station
-- Improve the "call the police when I'm attacked functionality" so it's actually a broadcast across the system, which attracts NPC bounty hunters and can also be picked up and turned into something similar to a USS for anyone who has a suitable receiver module in their ship. Make the transmitter manually activated, with some cost (e.g. drains capacitors) but powerful enough to have a very high chance of attracting attention.
NONE of these remove Supercruise, or even fundamentally change it or damage the nature of it. They are all opt-out features which would just increase the number of things you can do and the potential skills you can learn to better take advantage of it. They would mostly introduce more meta and more interaction without taking away from the ability to avoid it entirely and focus on the solitude.
Frontier are obviously very happy with SC, as are many on here, so perhaps it would be a good idea to focus on these kinds of ideas which might have a chance of more widespread approval, rather than just having a polarised slanging match.
1. Allowing in-system jumps in return for wear & tear/repair bills - you have to use supercruise if you're not willing to pay the price
2. Introducing in-system jump beacons, where you have to go/arrive when jumping - risky because you fall out of your jump (and potentially have to start it) at jump beacons in real space, so you trade the SC tedium for real-space, actual combat risk. Key thing is that if you have intel telling you there's likely to be a camp, you can avoid it by using SC, avoiding the usual EVE-style ganking.
3. Introducing some slightly more Newtonian mechanics which make it possible to arrive much quicker if you exploit the gravity wells. Even allow advance plotting of launch trajectories, using slingshotting etc.
4. Allow us to do more stuff while travelling.
For this last point, I have a slew of ideas, many of which, I'm sure, are not new:
-- Plotting and planning the above trajectories - even for other systems where we have the system data. Hell, orbital SC trajectories could even become saleable commodities like trade data, which you could farm for profit.
-- Allow us to buy actual trade reports, with prices, from nearby systems - maybe even from other pilots we see on our radar. Allow us to review these on our HUD while still piloting
-- Make the available modules for outfitting available for review similarly
-- Have a smaller, simpler (2D graph) in-HUD system/galaxy map allowing more interactive route planning while flying
-- Make stations broadcast mission adverts across the system when you get within radio range. Have them pop up on the HUD, and allow them to be selected to immediately target the relevant station
-- Improve the "call the police when I'm attacked functionality" so it's actually a broadcast across the system, which attracts NPC bounty hunters and can also be picked up and turned into something similar to a USS for anyone who has a suitable receiver module in their ship. Make the transmitter manually activated, with some cost (e.g. drains capacitors) but powerful enough to have a very high chance of attracting attention.
NONE of these remove Supercruise, or even fundamentally change it or damage the nature of it. They are all opt-out features which would just increase the number of things you can do and the potential skills you can learn to better take advantage of it. They would mostly introduce more meta and more interaction without taking away from the ability to avoid it entirely and focus on the solitude.
Frontier are obviously very happy with SC, as are many on here, so perhaps it would be a good idea to focus on these kinds of ideas which might have a chance of more widespread approval, rather than just having a polarised slanging match.
Some good ideas there.
But I wouldn't mind them simply making acceleration and deceleration a lot quicker.
I inwardly groan when I see a station over 1000LS away.
Zaptruder, you are not alone in your thoughts, I agree with you pretty much whole heartedly, the travel - 'Supercruise' is one of the most annoying parts of this game, it is a repetitive game - which i can deal with - but the repeating of Supercruise is excrutiating, I have said in a number of posts 'Give us Autopilot' sure you can be Interdicted from Auto so what, it doesnt happen much anyway, you wait ages, so you go and take a pee or put the kettle on and find you have drifted off course or over shot...come one! this is deliberate torture you know its going to take ages to get somewhere and the Devs are going to make sure you sit there like a dip stick staring at your screen for the whole time!
They cannot but you can avoid big grav wells and you'll go faster
The shortest, direct way it's always the slowest in a system packed with planets
Autopilot or not distances in space are huge and behind imaginations...so it's inevitable that a lot of time is spent in traveling between systems.
A part a jump gates system (which makes no sense here) I cant really imagine another way to Supercruise atm.
A part a jump gates system (which makes no sense here) I cant really imagine another way to Supercruise atm.
What would be "unscientific" about turbulence in hyperspace? I mean, we don't actually know what hyperspace would be like, even if it existed (which it probably doesn't).
At the very least it seems reasonable that the gravity from planets & other things would make navigating tricky. Perhaps the gravity of smaller objects (like single asteroids), which you'd have no chance of seeing from a distance, might have a greater influence in hyperspace than normal space? (The mathematics of the hypothetical physics might just work out like that.)
And why couldn't we get objects that effectively only exist in hyperspace? Although I don't personally believe in it, dark matter is widely believed to be true by most scientists - and yet it has virtually no effect on normal matter (apart from gravity). But maybe dark matter has a much bigger effect in hyperspace? Either introducing turbulence (at low densities) or dangerous obstacles (at high densities).
Summary: You can think up any kind of reasonable-sounding explanation for new gameplay mechanics. So just worry about designing a fun game, and think up the explanations afterwards.
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It's NOT inevitable that SuperCruise has really slow acceleration/deceleration & really low top speeds. Frontier just designed it that way, for some reason. I imagine they thought it would allow us to feel the size & admire the beauty of space, but as it currently stands there is far far too much time to "admire" things.
If I wanted to admire stuff, I can put the SC brakes on. If I wanted to get somewhere quick, I should be able to put SC into "overdrive", rather than it staying stuck in first gear.
Why cant you just select your star system and starport (if known, if not, then a nav beacon or whatever) and press 'Engage' and the drive just sends you there in autopilot? It pops out at the star, it turns the ship and points it at the port and accelerates faster and pops out at the port where you take manual control again? Why is that so hard? Why cant it go faster? Its fiction anyway for crying out loud, you can make a computer game do anything! Its not a simulator because the real thing doesnt exist so how can you simulate something you dont know? It's just an 'interpretation' of how the devs believe space travel would work based on current understanding of physics etc.
All those backers with cockpits and pedals and joysticks - its not a flight simulator really, whatever FDEV tell you- its science fiction! A simulator would be based on technology we have. I think you guys think like this:
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'Simulator = game made difficult to play by the non initiated and require the use of sticks, pedals and loads of keys, anything that puts off casual gamers so that when our mates and wifes say we are kids and nerds playing computer games we can be superior and state that it isnt a game! Its a simulator! Look at all the kit I have bought! No gamers could play this, see how many controls there are! Don't put me in the same camp as teenagers and dipsticks that have Xboxs etc"
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Well, you are in the same camp but you're just more boring and geekier. Anyway, sorry about the rant but you Backers (most not all) are very irritating and need to start seeing things from everyones perspective, we know what you think, we hear it enough.
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So to summarise, there are plenty of reasons you could give to make anything plausible in this game to make the game more fun for everyone not just the 'enthusiasts'. Whats the bet if you added Autopilot, the Nerds would use it too?
Have you tried plotting a course to avoid the grav wells instead of pointing your ship to the target and going?
I have the strong feeling that people who complain about SC haven't got the slightest clue how it works
Hre you go
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=36
So you can read for yourself why it works as it works and it's not going to change
So if I want to be a pirate or a bountyhunter I just get to camp a navpoint? Sounds a pretty boring game to me...
Exactly right! But you could have ranted a bit more like me ;-P +1
Yes, I would imagine some kind of autopilot is not really going to cut it for you!Supercruise is pretty hands on when you have a price on your head, and are cruising a heavily policed system trying to intercept merchant shipping...
No you could still Interdict me as you can now, and everyone camps at nav points anyway, thats where the NPCS hang out! All I have said in a long winded ranting manner is remove the need to hold the joystick and make constant small adjustments and get me there quicker. Simple isnt it?
Why would you not want to spend more of your gaming time actually doing the trading, bounty hunting, combat etc than the travelling? When you ahve made one journey they all look the same, hasnt the novelty worn off for you? I have had a week of it and I would be quite happy to spend less time admiring the scenery, sure its nice but I have to put the kids to bed, talk to the wife a bit etc and she isn't best pleased that I am spending hours every night in front of the PC as it is! With a disproportionate amount of the time sat like a dip stick doing nothing but 'staring into space'!
Ah, looks like I missed a couple of pages. Now an Autopilot module I would be quite happy to be in the game, if it behaved like the NPC's do in supercruise.
I'm just glad it's nowhere near as harsh as my Frontier days - when my autopilot got damaged in combat 9 time out of 10 I'd end up having to reload the game, after dismally failing to match orbital velocities with a planet, burning all my fuel, and drifting off into the abyss of space....
I'm just glad it's nowhere near as harsh as my Frontier days - when my autopilot got damaged in combat 9 time out of 10 I'd end up having to reload the game, after dismally failing to match orbital velocities with a planet, burning all my fuel, and drifting off into the abyss of space....
I agree supercruise in some cases is quite annoying, but what annoys me better is the breaking animation of the cockpit. One thing to shake the screen when something explodes but constant shaking of he screen for minutes is actually very bad for your eyes. You pretty much have to look at the shaking cockpit half of your travel time then half of the time while approaching the station.
Solution:
Remove the shaking completely. We are living in what 22nd century? They could come up with faster than light speed but there are no dampeners on the ship to make the travel more pleasant? I hate the cockpit shaking right now more than anything in the game.
As far as travel times go, adjust the speed in Supercruise. All they need to do is change a code so that ships accelerated faster, fly faster Cs in between to jump points and then decelerate faster.
Solution:
Remove the shaking completely. We are living in what 22nd century? They could come up with faster than light speed but there are no dampeners on the ship to make the travel more pleasant? I hate the cockpit shaking right now more than anything in the game.
As far as travel times go, adjust the speed in Supercruise. All they need to do is change a code so that ships accelerated faster, fly faster Cs in between to jump points and then decelerate faster.
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